Capacitors are commonly-used electrical components in semiconductor integrated circuitry, for example memory circuitry such as DRAM circuitry. A typical capacitor is comprised of two conductive electrodes separated by a non-conducting capacitor dielectric region. As integrated circuit density increases, there is a continuing challenge to maintain sufficiently high storage capacitance despite decreasing capacitor area. One way of increasing cell capacitance is through cell structure techniques. Such techniques include 3-dimensional cell capacitors such as trenched and stack capacitors. Other ways of increasing cell capacitance include the development and utilization of new materials for one or both of the capacitor electrodes and the capacitor dielectric region.
One way of maximizing capacitance is to use one or more dielectrics for the capacitor dielectric region which have a very high dielectric constant k. Certain dielectric metal oxides can be used for such purposes. Dielectric metal oxides may occur in multiple different amorphous and crystalline phases, with each phase having a different dielectric constant. It has been discovered in some instances that deposition of dielectric metal oxide layers at and below 75 Angstroms may require subsequent high temperature annealing well in excess of 500° C. to achieve desired highest-k phases for such different materials. Unfortunately, exposure of the substrate to such high temperatures can result in damage of other circuitry components and materials. Accordingly, it would be desirable to develop techniques that enable fabrication of capacitors having high k dielectrics that do not require exposure of substrates to high temperatures after deposition of the capacitor dielectric layers.